A senator representing Bayelsa State in the just inaugurated 8th National Assembly, Ben Murray-Bruce, has been accused of defaulting in the payment of suppliers millions of Naira few years after the closure of Lifestyle, owned by the Ben Bruce family.
Lifestyle is a major shop that was involved in marketing of books, gift items, toys and other materials nationwide.
The suppliers were owed for goods supplied to the outlets in Victoria Island, Lagos State and other locations across the country.
The suppliers, some of who said they borrowed huge funds from the banks to procure, import or produce the items before supplying them to Lifestyle, became more frustrated when they learnt that the key officials of the company that were supposed to be attending to them had been forced to resign their appointments.
Consequently, the suppliers found it extremely difficult to establish contacts with people who can assist them to get paid, especially as it was also difficult to meet Murray-Bruce and his brothers.
The suppliers were said to have made several efforts, including visits, phone calls and text messages, to officials of the company without success.
A Lagos-based journalist and author of the book: “The Niger Delta and Oil Politics,” Udeme Akpan, said he was not paid even after Lifestyle completed the marketing of his books.
Akpan said: “It is true that Lifestyle owed many suppliers, including myself, before closing shop a few years ago. The officials of the company have not made any efforts to settle the debts, which amount to some millions of Naira.
“I have been paying interest because the funds we used in producing the book were raised from a bank.”
Akpan said when he discovered that the usual reassuring messages were no longer coming, he decided to visit the office and, again, according to him, the lady he met promised that his own payment would be made within weeks.
However, as week turned into months, he decided to put a call through to the office, but alas, the same lady that had assured him that “mine would be paid within weeks” later informed him on telephone that she should not be approached again on the matter as she had since resigned from the company.
Since then, Akpan said efforts to get paid have been fruitless, especially as the staff have become very hostile to everyone who goes there to ask for payment.
Akpan added: ““This is to say least most unfair, fraudulent and discourteous, especially coming from Ben Bruce who gives impression that he is committed to building a new Nigeria.
“Honestly, I am just wondering what value Ben Bruce and others would be adding to the National Assembly when they cannot show the best example in their own private life.”
It was however learnt that it was not only Lifestyle that reneged on its agreement to suppliers.
New Metro is also said to owe several other suppliers, including Akpan, while in operation before it relocated back to South Africa.
Balogun Badejo Consulting Limited, a company which specialises in human resources and management, was selected to sell New Metro’s assets in Nigeria and use the proceeds to settle its liabilities or debts.
According to investigations, authors and suppliers were invited to file their claims and provide necessary documents for eventual payment.
Most of the suppliers did, but rather than fulfilling its own part of the bargain, Balogun Badejo Consulting Limited also reneged.
Akpan said: “I supplied all documents requested to process my payment and followed up with several visits. Its consultant, Ibrahim Showa, kept on promising that I and others would be paid.
“But the company never did despite several visits and calls. It beats my imagination why a company like Balogun Badejo that should have respect for ethics and professionalism should have accepted to execute the task if it was not going to live up to expectation.”
Aside from Balogun Badejo Consulting Limited and Lifestyle, it was also gathered that the University Bookshop of the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State is also involved in the reneging on payment to suppliers.
Akpan said after selling all the books supplied to University in 2010, the former bookshop manager, Jonah Ode, who was directly involved in selling the books, has not paid for them despite numerous visits and promises to do so.
Ode, who is currently in the investment unit of the University, has not been taking phone calls or responding to text messages and the new management of the bookshop said it cannot pay as Ode did not include that as part of his handover notes.
“From all indications, Ode is fraudulent. I don’t know why the Professor Joseph Atubokiki Ajienka-led institution should allow such a character to remain in the system. He has seriously portrayed the university in bad light,” Akpan said.
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